Oxford Instruments, the world’s leading supplier of superconducting materials, has been selected to supply 58 tonnes of superconducting wire to ITER at a value in excess of £30million. ITER is a joint international research and development project seeking alternative energy through fusion power and is one of the largest scientific projects ever undertaken. This order, which is subject to contract, has been agreed by ‘Fusion for Energy’, the European procurement agency for ITER based in Barcelona.

The first deliveries will be towards the end of the current financial year and the effect on this year’s trading is expected to be modest. Deliveries will be phased over the next three years. The wire will be supplied by Oxford Superconducting Technology, USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oxford Instruments.

Opportunities exist for further supplies of superconducting wire to other procurement agencies of the ITER programme.

Oxford Instruments has been named as one of the 30 British companies on the FTSE Environmental Opportunities Index, and its tools are being used for the development of alternative energy, research into climate change and environmental pollution.

Additional Notes:

The European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy or ‘Fusion for Energy’ is an organisation established in 2007 with the main objective of providing Europe’s contribution to ITER. The facility is being built in Cadarache, France, a research center for nuclear energy created in 1959 by the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique.

Nuclear fusion taps energy from reactions like those that heat the Sun, using fuel sources that are abundantly available, and accessible to all nations. Fusion is seen as a cleaner approach to power production than nuclear fission and fossil fuels. The ITER device will make extensive use of niobium-tin superconducting magnets to contain the fusion reaction. More than 500 tonnes of niobium-tin superconducting strand will be used in the construction of the ITER magnets, of which 95 tonnes are expected to be sourced in the EU.

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